Samyang to show 24mm F3.5 tilt-and-shift lens at Photokina

Samyang has announced it will be presenting a perspective control 24mm F3.5 lens at Photokina 2012. The Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC is a wide-angle, full-frame lens that offers tilt and shift movements, allowing control of subject geometry and depth of field. It offers up to 12mm of shift and 8.5° of tilt; the shift movement can be rotated +/- 90° relative to the lens mount, and the tilt movement 90° relative to the shift axis, allowing lots of flexibility over adjustments. The lens will be available in Canon EF, Nikon F, Pentax K and Sony Alpha mounts.

Press release:

Premier of Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC

Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC perspective control lens

Samyang Optics is about to release a new lens with the perspective control function — Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC. The official product presentation will take place on September 18th 2012, during international photographic Photokina fairs held in Cologne.

New Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC is a wide-angle, full-frame lens fitted with the perspective control and tilt-shift functions. Its unique optical and mechanical construction makes it an ideal tool for architecture and landscape photography. The product will be also extremely useful when convergence of the lines in the frame is required. Owing to the mechanism of optical axis tilt, focus depth operation brings utterly new quality and possibilities, enabling photographers to shape the image according to their individual needs, both on digital and nalog carriers.

Optical design of Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC comprises of sixteen lenses arranged in eleven groups, including two aspherical lens and two lens made of ED glass with low dispersion factor. Thanks to this solution, the lens perfectly reproduces detailed elements and gives splendid image plasticity, also with the T-S function on. Each optical component of the product was covered with multi-layered, anti-reflective UMC coatings, which provide great light transmission factor, high contrasts and render only natural colors of the photographed scene. With sophisticated optics and developed T-S function, Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC is currently the most advanced lens produced by Samyang Optics and may compete with similar lenses of other brands.

Tilt-Shift function

Tilt-Shift function in Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC allows for smooth and individual adjustment of the focus plane angle by +/-8.5 and enables parallel shift of the optical axis by +/-12 millimeters. To make Tilt-Shift function even more seamless, both the lens mount as well as Tilt-Shift section may be rotated on the optical axis. The Tilt-Shift section may be rotated left by 90 degrees (with 30 degree adjustment), while mount of the lens may be rotated both in left and right direction by 90 degrees, also with 30 degree adjustment.

Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC will be available with mounts for Canon EF, Nikon F, Pentax K and Sony A. We welcome everyone to visit us at Photokina at our booth A025 in the hall 2.1.

Comments

Thanks Ueberlicht for the additional info on your web site. So, targeted at under 1,000 Euros, and release anticipated for late 2012 or beginning of 2013. I look forward to it. I've resisted the Nikon PC-E lenses because of the lack of rotation between the tilt and shift. I have Nikon's older 85mm PC that has the same issue.

I have their 85mm f/1.4 under the Rokinon brand name, and it is a very nice lens on the Nikon D800E. Hope the optics on the TS are better than Nikon's 24mm PC-E.

We got our hands on this lens (branded Walimex) with Nikon mount at Photokina. We took some photos of it attached to a Nikon D700, but were not able to take any test photos. It is still only prototypes they are showing.

Good question. How about a composition with flowers in the foreground inches away, and a mountain in the background at infinity. Given the sharpness falloff toward the outside of the image circle of a tilted lens, and given the sharpness falloff due to diffraction at small apertures, would one get a sharper image shooting this composition flat with a sharp 24mm prime lens at f/16 or f/22, or shooting with the TS lens at f/8 with focal plane tilted through both flowers and mountain?

What a load of rubbish... Software will magnify the image resolution in sections of the image when 'pseudo shifting' and thus when enlarging the image for large scale printing the image integrity will fail in these sections before other sections of the image...Also if you 'pseudo shift' then lines that are horizontal but on the Z axis (away from you not across you) will deform incorrectly and be distorted, if you do it optically the result is much better

Software perspective correction is fine when (1) you have resolution surplus (vs. output requirements) and (2) the extent of correction is moderate, because the more aggressively the non-shift lens is tilted up, the more you need extra room at the bottom for cropping, and if you use a wider lens the convergence becomes more pronounced requiring still more cropping room.

On 35mm, I have a Schneider 28mm and an ARSAT 35mm shift lenses and you'd be hard pressed matching anything like that 28mm's resolution (fully shifted) with cropping a trapezoid into a 20mm or 24mm's tilted lens and stretching it back into a rectangle.

A well made 24mm lens at a 12mm shift would be very hard to match by perspective-correcting a conventional lens, as you would need an extra sharp 14mm lens.

Last but not least, let's not forget that you can combine / "stack" optical and digital perspective corrections for really significant perspective control, which at times comes handy.

I hope this lens has good enough quality to be used on the Nikon D800E. I would happily pay a lot for such a lens. While it would be more democratic for the lens to be 'good enough' and cheap, my experience is that more expensive better lenses hold their value much more than cheap lenses which are a false economy. I recently sold a Canon lens that I bought when I was an amateur for *more* than I bought it for. I'm sure this would not have been the case if it had been an adequate Tokina, Sigma etc.

This is a good thing. Nice to know that Pentax is still on the mind of third party manufacturers. Adding another lens option, any option in my book, is all good in the land of Pentax. Samyang has a history of producing decent manual focus lenses for reasonable prices. It will be interesting to see how much one of these will go for.

This lens will be wasted on a Pentax camera. Unless it is an old film camera, there are no FF Pentax cameras. APS-C size Pentax cameras will make the field of view much narrower and therefore defeat a lot if not all of the purpose for getting the lens. Especially given the price of such a lens, there is no point using it on a Pentax, better even if one has to buy a new Canon or Nikon to use it instead.

24mm on APC-C = 36mm equiv. With T/S this is a very nice landscape lens. I'm looking forward to this one! Perhaps a nice one to couple to the new Pentax K-5 IIs. Seems this could make a great landscape combo.

For years, I shot with a view camera and loved the tilt-shift functionality, mostly for perspective control, which I really missed in SLRs. Now, though, with excellent perspective control available within Lightroom / photoshop, I don't really miss it nearly as much. Why is a tilt-shift lens better than a software-based correction? Is it primarily for depth of field control, or in order to use the entire frame more effectively (seems like not as big a deal with 30MP sensors), or to improve visualization at time of image capture? Or, is it just, somehow, "better"?

I want to want this lens, because it would be fun to play with and bring back great memories of my bellows days, but why does one NEED it?

With a D800 and a great wide angle, sure, you can tip the camera a little, then correct in PS or LR and it should be fine. But no, you can't stand at the base of a 30-story building, point the camera way up and fix it later in software without a big loss in quality.

Software won't do tilt and even these lenses won't do it quite like a real technical camera where I have front and rear movements. Never-the-less, I will probably purchase this lens if it fits properly and if the price is reasonable.

To design one PCE lens to properly clear the font pentaprism bulge on so many cameras by so many makers seems to me to be a great design job. We'll see. I'd also like to know the price tag.

Nobody really needs it unless controling plane of focus in studio work for small product. Or possibly making 40 inch prints of tall buildings shot from ground level and you don't want to sacrifice any res with the software. Other than that it's just a distraction from the other 500 things you already need to be thinking about while shooting. I doubt I'd ever buy one for my architectural work. Software works fine with finer control and u can see the adjustments on a monitor not a viewfinder which is way better.

A T-S lens cannot be replaced by current software yet. It can do more than straightening buildings or providing extra FOV. It can give you great depth of field, say of tiny flowers inches away all the way to distant mountains, if used properly. Also, as someone said already, it can provid proper, accurate perspective as really seen by the eye better than any software, which can only do so much, although you do not see this in normal sceneries without clear straight lines in ALL dimensions to show that the picture is wonky from simplisticsoftware corrections. Of course you really need bellows if you want to really do this well, as even T-S lens has clear limitations.

In summary, this type of lens is not for the ordinary photographers who cannot see its usefulness simply because they do not understand how to use it. Sure, don't buy it if you can't see how it can be used or why it can help you.l ;)

1) You can "stack" optical and digital perspective adjustments to increase the available adjustment range.

2) Wider angle PC lenses like 24mm give a greater resolution advantage over digital correction vs. 35mm PC, because the wider the angle, the more the lines would converge when framing with a conventional lens, and the looser the framing needs to be to include the extra background needed for the more aggressive "trapezoid stretch" digital conversion. It basically boils down to needing an ultra sharp ultra wide lens and those aren't cheap in their own right.

3) For the tilt part, one can more or less digitally simulate the effect of artificially bringing areas of the image out of focus through tilt (the so-called "miniature effect", sometimes idiotically referred to as "tilt-shift"), but it is of course impossible to digitally simulate the opposite tilt effect, namely to keep entirely in focus a surface or image area that is not perpendicular to the lens axis.

I will join these lens options because I was too hungry to wait similar products from Pentax.....if the price reasonable. Their choice to have fl24mm is so brilliant to my eyes, as it will give close to fl 35mm on Pentax APS-C sensor.

Yes, it becomes a 35mm-ish, as you say, and will work just the same. I've used a 24-PC on a Nikon D7000. The only limiting factor was the overhang on the top of the camera which prevented full shift movement. If you shoot Nikon make sure your body is compatible with full movements before buying.

It's customary to use shift to get two images that sit side by side with the same perspective. If you use software image stitching without that, the sw always has to distort the images to make them fit together.

Here in Italy Nital make a support for PC lenses specifically for three-shot panoramics. The Jumbo MBS keeps the lens fixed so shift movements will actually move the body rather than the lens. This makes for perfect stitching, even with close subjects.

Another little point. The Canon EOS TS-E shoots wide open on adapters thereby limiting their use on anything other than Canon EF bodies Their older lenses require a trip to Canon workshop to be re-oriented and a trip back to Canon to be returned to factory configuration.

Here we are - pick and adapter and you can use this on just about any EVIL-type camera.

Arguably these lense types work much better when set up on a camera with evf or lcd readout where exposure is correctly shown. My (older) Canon 24mm TS-E freaks out the exposure meter reading when shifted beyond any mild shift setting. An ovf body has no means of feeding back correct exposure settings once it's internal meter has become fooled.

My Samyang 85mm f1.4 is a very good lens, I cannot see why this new lens should not be very acceptable also.

Sounds very nice! While the TS lenses have felt quite interesting to me for a long while, the Canon's TS stuff have been rather too pricey to really make me to want to purchase one. However, if the image quality is decent and price substantially lower than Canon's, I just might get one.

Samyang already won me over for the fisheye lenses with their offering, perhaps they'll do the same with TS as well.

"Pentax Prime", I've never met "Francis Carver" & I don't know him. Do you? Because your reply above is so personal and rude, and totally unjustified. Perhaps you should go out take some pictures more often. Cheers.

Yes, an affordable TS lens would be nice, but not only does it need to be optically sound, it also needs to be mechanically well made. I hope enough copies are reviewed so that any mechanical QC issues are revealed.

For me as for architect and architectural photographer it’s a GREAT news! Thank you Samyang! I’m sure I’ll buy this lens at the first day it will be on sale in Russia. Nikon’s 24 mm PC-E lens is tooooo expencive, even for professional shooting. Samyang engeneers, if you read this, please don’t stop your work and also produce one more wide-angle lens – for interiors. I mean if you’ll design something similar to canon’s 17mm ts-e, but available for ALL systems – it will be BESTSELLER in interior photographers professional environment. Look: there is no similar products in Nikon’s line, and in Sony’s, and in Pentax’s also. So at current time interior and landscape photographers HAVE to use canon ts-e 17mm or large format film cameras like Sinar, which are very heavy and slow operating. But I’d like to have possibility to shoot interiors on Nikon d800, because of it’s awesome 36mp sensor and because I already have all Nikon’s system of acessories.

IMO 17mm is too wide for architecture since it can distort foreground objects. It does have some use for very small interiors but if you have the space longer focal lengths create more balanced images. The 24mm and 28mm are the most useful focal lengths.

It is nice to get back from the subject to use the longest possible FL. In my experience that happens a lot less than one would like in interior photography. Clients often want the wide shot and not the detail.

A-Frame. You must be joking. 17mm is a must-have for architectural interiors. 24mm just doesn't cut it for general interior shots. I use both lenses every day. If you are having trouble with too much distortion in scenes on the 17 then I'd suggest you aren't using it correctly.

A-frame, no, I disagree. In my practice I shoot small interiors very often, and I can say that it is a serious problem to find some space for tripod and get right point of view when you shoot on 24 mm. Very often 24mm gives too narrow look. Of couse when the space of a room allows me to step back, I prefer not such extremely wide angles.

Everything depends on a price... but if this lens will have such a huge price-tag advantage over competition as 85mm did then I'm sure it'll be one of essential lenses for many photographers and Samyang might count for a huge sales. Especially when for A and K mounts it'll be arguably the only lens out there to be within a reach of mortals (A-mount users got Schneider, but man... that's a Ferrari amongst DSLR lenses...)

I use the Canon 24TSE series II for architectural assignments. It is an extremely good lens - sharp, no distortion, minimal vignetting, and well corrected. Unless this Samyang is nearly as good or somehow is better, the price is not very relevant to those who shoot architecture for a living.

Also does this have a method to lock the tilt at xero as the newer TSE lenses can? On the old Canon lenses sometimes when I was in a hurry, I'd bump the lens and tilt it slightly... screwing up the focus.

Honestly, I hope it's great and sells for $49. But another thing to bear in mind is that because everything in a TS lens is adjustable, there won't be any profiles for correcting barrel, or other distortion. In other words, there won't be any auto corrections in Lightroom, Photoshop or even DxO (because everything is dependent on how the lens is adjusted). This is a problem even with Nikon and Canon PC/TS lenses, if you need everything to look straight and square.

When the top of the highrise building across the street is a quarter the size of the bottom of the building and you don't have a TS lens, you have to shoot a whole bunch of images and stitch them together and then correct for optical distortion if you don't want to lose massive amounts of information when you STREEEETCH the building. Or the TS lens can do it for you optically in a single shot by essentially zooming in on the top of the building and zooming out at the bottom. TS lenses are awesome but far too expensive.

You can do self-calibration from a single image in that case. I.e. you select a series of lines that ought to be dead straight then fit a polynomial and warp the image based on that. It's more time consuming, but it's up to you how much your time is worth compared to buying the Canon 24 TSE.

Another problem is when buildings themselves aren't straight, which is the case with a lot of old churches. Then you're stuck :)

The purpose of the lens is to avoid all the IQ loss that comes with post exposure warping. You can also shift the plane of focus out of parallel with the sensor plane which is almost impossible post exposure. If you don't care about that stuff then this lens will seem like a waste of money.

I have a 24TS II and it turns out that, at shorter distances--say you're photographing a tall doorway--the "shifted" portion of the image barrels while the part that you could have gotten even without shift remains almost distortion free. So you have both barrel and no-barrel in the same image. A real pain. Once you get around 15+ feet from the subject you don't notice this so it's not a constant problem but still, for a lens this price.... (And the 24 PC-E does the same thing).

Pt lens has a method for correcting distortion with PC lenses. I have found in real world practice that the general unshifted profile actually works quite well even with shift, at least on my Nikon 24 and 45mm.

I was debating between the Nikon 14-24 and 24mm PC-E for my D800. I bought the 14-24 because I couldn't justify the price of the 24mm PC-E when it doesn't allow you to change the axis for both sets of movements.

Now samyang is coming out with a TS with both axis being rotateable. Very nice stuff. If the reviews look good I'll be getting one, selling my 14-24 and pocketing the difference.

You don't need to sell the 14-24, it is another story by itself and well worth keeping. The 24TS will be a good complement to it.When shooting architecture, I usually go around doing a first scouting with the shift lens on, then go again with a 12-24 mounted. The vision is different and so are the resulting pictures.

True - but if it is native, it is less bother. On top of that, it could have additional pluses, like reporting the correct EXIF data, etc.

BTW if we are talking adapters, for many APS-C mounts there are tilt, shift and sometimes tilt and shift adapters for glass like M42... It is even cheaper solution then Samyang - but of course, it has its drawbacks...

Good for Samyang! I am glad to see someone take an interest in a relatively obscure special purpose lens. If it receives reviews as good as their 85mm 1.4 they will have a winner. My gut tells me the street price will be in the $550-$650 range. If lower what a bonus; if higher might want fo find a used version one Canon. The older ones are real good, however the new II is spectacular if you can justify the price. I wonder if they could build a 17mm to sell at under a grand? I'd jump on that one. I also wish that they would work on a macro that is as good as the old Vivitar 105mm. They would sell them like hot cakes. ? for Rescuer or else what? 73 Jerry

I think $550 is awfully low with the tilting/shifting mechanism but anything's possible. The older Canon 24 TS are ok for playing with tilting and selective focus but barely passable for architectural photography, which people expect to look like it was shot with 4x5. The 24TS II is terrific without shift and stays pretty good even when shifted, if you stop down.

I think it will be at least AU$1000 - I paid around AU$580 for the 14mm f/2.8 AE, so the TS will be more than that. Still only around 1/3 the asking price of the Nikkor but I'll bet the IQ will be at least 95% of the Nikkor, if not equivalent.

If their 24mm F1.4 lens is already $700, I think we should be happy if this comes in at $999. I suppose they can safely sit at the price of a second-hand EF 24mm TS-E, especially if image quality is better.

The current generation of Nikon's PCE lenses have the limitation of not being able to rotate tilt and shift axis independently, unlike the Canon's. That's why I haven't purchased one yet, waiting for them to release an update.

Does the Samyang design allow independent tilt and shift axis rotation? If yes, I'm sold not because of IQ, but based on not wanting to pay $200-300 to Nikon Service Center each time when I need to change its direction of axis, since the Nikon PCE24 comes from the factory with the tilt/shift and rise/fall movements on opposite axis which can only be converted by a Nikon tech without voiding my 5-year warranty.

By the way, given Samyang's track record, I don't think IQ would be a concern at all.

Yes according to the press release above the tilt and shift axis can be set independently.

In fact the spec is remarkably similar to the Canon TSE 24 f/3.5 in many ways, 24mm, f/3.5, 16 elements in 11 groups, 8.5 degree tilt, 12mm shift, 20cm mfd, 82mm filter thread, in fact is this just the same lens rebranded Samyang: ;)

Contrare (sp) I just unscrewed the base and rotated 90 degrees and re-fastened because I prefer tilt and shift in the same plane. Beside the Canon rotates 360 degrees. It's no match for the II however works great.

This is great news. If the Samyang 35mm and 85mm are anything to go by, this will be an excellent lens.Plus it is going to come with a K-Mount as an option. That will be a first for Pentax. They have only had one shift lens, many years ago, and require a premium price, if you can find one.

If this turns out to be genuinely good even when shifted, I might switch back to Nikon exclusively. The Canon 24 is noticably better than the PC-E, unfortunately, so I ended up with two camera systems.

It has always struck me that Canon puts much too high a price on their TS-E 24 because they can.

Given it doesn't have to have fast AF or a compact size, or even electric contacts, I see no reason why Samyang--based on the lenses I have of theirs--can't be every bit as good as Canon L. It even has a red ring!

These lenses are expensive because they put out a much larger image circle which means much larger glass and that's where a lot of the cost comes from. Even so, people should know that when you shift, the image quality goes downhill pretty rapidly, especially in the corners. (Lens Rentals does not reccomend the 24PC-E for the D800) So, if the Samyang turns out to be "almost as good" that may not be good enough. But hopefully, it will be dirt cheap and spectacular.

I use a cheap chinese tilt adapter on a Nex 5n with my AIS Nikon 28/2.8. There is no vignetting or corner smearing at full 8 degree tilt.For DX and tilt only this is for sure the cheaper solution than a Nikon PC in DX mode. No image degradation.

If it's anywhere near their 35 1.4 optically, I'll buy it for sure. It has to be fairly expensive to produce with 16 elements, two of which are ED glass, but if the pricing of their other lenses are any indication, it should fall somewhere in the $699-999 range (hopefully).

Very nice. I wish someone would make a shift lens specifically for micro 4/3 format in about 14 or 15 mm focal length (= 28 or 30 mm in 35mm equivalent). I think there would be a good size market for it.

@kodachromeguyHere here. Although even 24 would be OK on an MFT mount - at least it would not be adapted.

@Alec - some amateurs like architectural photography and don't like big cameras. Just because we don't like big cameras doesn't mean they don't want the tools to shoot what they shoot in camera.I think a lot of architectural shooters would say "why would an architectural professional choose to work in 35mm format". Maybe less so these days but they certainly used to. The thing is technology is give in us very similar capabilities in smaller packages. And anyway there's the other ways that people like to play with tilt shift, e.g. MFT videographers might like an MFT version for "model" scenes.And remember a lot of film shooters said I can't believe a pro would choose to work digital because they couldn't see the possibilities or market for it. And before....things move on and the luddites of any given day are proven short sighted (not that there is anything wrong with that).

Alec, I am an architect and I shoot my own projects for portfolio and website work. There's a thing called 'good enough' photography. Something like this is perfect for me, as I don't need to by a FF camera and a $2500 ts lens for my needs. I never get this all or nothing attitude photographers on this board have. It's like, "spend $6000 on a a camera and one lens or you get nothing!"

@probert - which cameras are the same size and MFT cameras with the same feature set and sensors 40% larger?I can believe they may exist, - but I don't know of them, so it'd be great if you'd enlighten me. But even if they do exist, I'm happy with my MFT. It's as good as my APS-C as far as I can tell - at least for what I shoot in the conditions I shoot. -If I want a TS lens for it - what business is it of yours?

Hum, if the price is right and the IQ good, I just might get one, I do a lot of landscapes and architecture and have been lusting for a Nikon T&S but put off by the cost. heck, I bet I could get this and the 14 f/2.8 for a WHOLE lot less that anything I can do with Nikon.

The Nikon 24mm PC lens is really awful (blurry in the corners and difficult to get full depth of field) not to mention overpriced compared to the Canon 24mm Tilt/Shift II, let's hope this lens functions better and works easily on a D800.

Corner blur can be a consequence of lens design constraints. Good tilt/shift lenses are not flat field, unlike fixed ones. See http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/focusing-ts.shtml. If the center is sharp, the corners will be blurry. This goes away when stopping down. The best focus is obtained by finding the near and far points in relation to the plane (actually, sphere) of focus and focusing halfway in between, then stopping down. It's not easy to do right, as any view camera user knows.

I've no experience at all in using a TS lens but this intrigues me. I've often thought about the wonderful Canon TSE lenses but they are WAY out of my budget. If this gets good reviews and the price is right it could well be my next lens!

It's relatively easy to correct distortion in post, but not with a shift lens - once you shift, the barrel is no longer centered and that's why it's critical to have as less distortion as possible with TS.

Hopefully, this will allow those that don't have pro budgets to be able to buy. I don't care if it can't compete with with the Canon TS. There's a thing called 'good enough' that the many that aren't going to spent $2500 on a lens still find useful, and much needed in the photography world. Thank God someone decided every lens doesn't have to be the best for the most money or nothing at all.